Bob Levy, the voice of Ocean County on radio’s WOBM for five decades, died Thursday, March 1, the station has announced.

He was 86.

Levy’s warm tenor, easy-yet-pointed wit and genuine interest in the world around him entertained generations of Ocean County listeners as the area grew from a sandy outpost to a bustling community. Levy, of Toms River, applied his talents to a range of shows over the years, including the talker “Topic A” on Sundays and local sports broadcasts.

“He was a legend,” said Michele Amabile, disc jockey for 107.1 The Boss (WWZY-FM) in Long Branch and a correspondent for Variety. “Growing up in Monmouth and Ocean county and listening to his sonorous voice gave inspiration to kids like me who wanted to have a career in radio. We all should be blessed to have the kind of career he had.”

Levy was with Berkeley-based WOBM when the station went on the air 50 years ago on March 1, 1968. He was a sports announcer and he worked sales back then.

“Bob Levy leaves behind a remarkable legacy of work that may never be equaled,” said Bert Baron, program director for 1450 WCTC-AM in Franklin Township. “The Mount Rushmore of Jersey radio must include him, simply for the groundwork he laid for the rest of us.”

Levy first made his name at WOBM via his sports broadcasts.

“He used to do the Toms River football games when there was only one school in Toms River and Ron Signorino Sr. was the coach, then he did the Brick games when Warren Wolf was there,” said WOBM’s Kevin Williams. “He became very friendly with (Lakewood basketball coach) Bob Nastase, who was then a young coach, and he broadcast the games in the mid ‘70s, the heyday of Lakewood basketball.”

Watch the video at the top of this story to learn more about the coaching pioneers at the Shore.

The Levy broadcasts of Lakewood Little League’s march to the 1975 Little League World Series championship had that something extra.

“You would see the games on Wide World of Sports on tape delay, but Bob did the games live on WOBM,” Williams said.

A trip to Miami Beach in the ‘70s gave Levy the inspiration to take his broadcasting in a new direction.

“Miami Beach is considered the birthplace of talk radio, and he was listening to the talk shows down there and he came back and said, 'This isn’t so hard, I can do better than these guys,'” Williams said. “'I can be better than that.'”

“He sort of convinced management to try this thing on WOBM.”

Hence, Topic A was born in 1979.

“He was the voice of the Ocean County people,” Williams said. “He’d talk about potholes on the street to every little thing.”

“I allow all the callers to be heard regardless of their opinion,” said Levy previously to the Asbury Park Press. “Many talk shows advertise as being an equal exchange, but if the caller doesn’t kiss up to the host, they are gone. I listen to everyone and I say to them, ‘Get it off your chest, you’ll feel better. Don’t keep it inside or you’ll boil over.’"

Levy later had an 18-year run on the weekday morning show that included his wife, Marianne, as co-host.

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Bob and Marianne Levy in 2004.(Photo: FILE PHOTO)

“People enjoy listening because they know they are going to be heard and they know that they won’t get any bull from me,” Levy said. “All the calls are unscreened, which is opposed to most talk shows. On other shows, they screen the calls and then they decide if they are going to put you on. I don’t know what the people are calling about until they get on the air.”

Levy was inducted as a charter member into the New Jersey Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame in 2012 and he’s a member of the Lakewood High School Hall of Fame. The Townsquare Media-owned WOBM (92.7-FM) broadcasts out of the Bob Levy Broadcast Center in Toms River.

Levy died at Community Medical Center in Toms River after suffering a fall a few days ago. He’s survived by his wife Marianne, daughter Karen, and son Steven.

“His greatest attribute was his honesty,” Williams said. “He didn’t turn the mic on and pretend.”